Chapter 321: Gruesome Butchery (1/2)
The giant chicken, there was no other way to describe it, lunged forward while barraging him with dozens of fast moving projectiles that seemed to emerge from its outspread wings. It was easy enough for him to slide to the right, avoiding not only the ranged attack but forcing the large creature to redirect its momentum awkwardly.
As it skidded by him, claws frantically working against the smooth stone floor in an effort to continue its assault, he took a moment to evaluate the creature.
It stood nearly three meters tall, and was covered in midnight black feathers that extended from its grey colored talons to it's dark grey beak. As he looked at it, he realized that, while it resembled a chicken in form, there were a couple differences that he hadn't noticed at first glance. Most notable were the feathers of its tail, which extended much farther than would be seen in it's domestic cousins, bringing to mind the exotic plumage of the male peacock when not on display.
The creature would have more closely resembled a pheasant or some such similar animal if it weren't for the pale gray waddle that framed it's furious face. This combined with its overall posture and jerky motions created the impression that Mike was looking at an old, black and white animation of a chicken.
Feeling slightly bemused by this realization, he nevertheless launched a trio of winds blades while dodging another, somewhat clumsy, charge. The first neatly separated the monster's feet from the rest of the body, while the second and third caught it on each shoulder respectively, cutting its wings from the rest of its body.
Mike was left with a disturbingly angry monster torso that continued to screech in an aggravated fashion as it flopped around on the floor like some kind of bloated fish. Needing to restrain it in order to properly harvest the meat, he channeled a bit of mana into the floor, causing the stone of the cavern to rise up and form an interlocking net of rocky bindings. Unfortunately, this only made the creature begin to thrash against its bonds with an almost maniacal energy.
[Ugh...this is going to be a bit more challenging than I thought. Maybe I can stun it somehow?]
Going through his options, he decided to try using Life Magic, figuring that, at the very least, he could practice other usages of the skill.
Moving around to a side where the monster's beak couldn't reach him, he laid a hand on its quivering side and sent his will into its body. Initially, he tried to follow the path of its nervous system, leading up to it's brain, but he quickly realized that there was something unusual about this creature.
The monster's body was strange in many ways, but the first thing that struck him was the lack of most major organs. While it obviously had a skeletal structure complete with the usual accompaniment of muscles and tendons, and seemed to still be equipped with a heart, lungs, brain, and the typical sensory organs, it was otherwise hollow. Or rather, all the rest of the space typically reserved for the other bodily systems was taken up by a large, bladder-like organ that didn't seem to have any inherent purpose.
He could vaguely tell that there was something inorganic inside of its membrane, but his senses couldn't determine anything else about it. After some thinking, the answer came to him.
[No way...these things have a literal treasure chest built into their bodies. I bet that's where they keep their mana cores and other drops.]
Shaking his head, he cleared the errant thoughts and concentrated on his mission. Knowing the bare bones nature of the monster, he figured that the simplest solution to his problem was to sever the nerves that controlled the creature's motions while leaving the one governing its heart and lungs intact.
Surprisingly, this proved to be pretty easy, and it wasn't long before he was looking down at the limp form of the chicken monster that would have appeared to be dead if it wasn't for the slow, shuddering gasps that issued forth from its beak.
Overcoming a momentary bout of nausea at the weird barbarity of the whole situation, Mike began planning the next step. He would need to cut portions off of the creature's meatier parts while making sure to keep it alive. After some deliberation, he settled on the solution of simply continually healing it with Life Magic while dissecting it with blades made from Dark Magic.
Although he wasn't sure if the creature was really capable of feeling pain, seeing how it was only vaguely mimicking the structure of a living being, he nevertheless tried to sever the actions of its spinal column that transmitted pain signals. Even though it was a monster that was trying to kill him earlier, he had no desire to torture it like this.
After roughly a half hour of harvesting, he'd used up close to two thirds of his mana reserves, and decided to call it quits, finally putting the creature out of its misery with a well placed spike of darkness.
Much as he anticipated, the main body of the monster dissolved into particles while leaving the severed chunks of meat unaffected. In their place appeared a large orange mana core, and a neat square of brownish-grey material that he used Appraise on with a sinking heart.
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Tenebrous Phasianidae Meat
Material (Tier 1, Rank 3)
Meat harvested from the Tenebrous Phasianidae. Well known for its savory flavor that compliments a large variety of dishes, this meat is often heralded as one of the most delicious in the Inland Sea Region. Can be refined through Alchemy or prepared using Cooking. In either case, this material holds an affinity for stealth and darkness related effects.
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Mike blinked and read over the description again.
[This implies that people could potentially create dishes that enhance a person's abilities or grant certain effects, like drinking a potion would...I really need to talk to Morris about this.]
After packing up and storing his spoils, he quickly blazed his way through the rest of the floor, made use of the dungeon exit located near the stairs leading up to the previous level, and walked back out into the real world.
He marched past the several delvers who were still hanging out in the little meeting area, ignoring their curious glances in his direction, and took off immediately once he left the cavern.